What If?
by Take-A-Look-Through-My-Eyes
Summary: What if, on that fateful first day, Lucas didn't give up on Maya after their first failed "relationship?" This is a look at how the series would be if that tiny detail had changed.


Maya couldn't help but admire her best friend's naivety and smile at how eager she was to branch out and be more adventurous. Even if she was still tentative to try anything. During their conversation on the subway, she spotted a really cute guy in the corner. And, being the considerate friend she was, she wasn't going to entertain the thought of them being anything more than strangers. But for Riley…

"Oh yeah? Let's see how cool you'll be when you look at him." Riley turned and made eye contact with said cute boy. When she turned back she had the goofiest smile on her face. But, knowing Riley, she wouldn't do anything to pursue him just yet. Maya took a deep breath, dreading what she was about to do. But this was for her best friend. Her own happiness comes second.

Walking up to him, she swung around the pole in front of him casually and smiled in an overly-friendly manner.

"Hi, I'm Maya." The guy looked up at her with a genuinely intrigued smile. Maya pushed on, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach. "You're really cute. We should hang out sometime." She sat next to him. "You make me happy." Then she put on her best puppy-dog face. "You don't pay enough attention to me. This isn't working out." She stood up. "It's you, not me. We can still be friends. Not really." She feigned nonchalance and walked away, leaving him looking confused, watching her retreating figure.

Maya resumed her spot next to Riley.

"He's available. We just broke up." Riley looked incredibly sad.

"Are you okay? Do we need to talk about it?" Maya ignored her.

"You still wanna be like me?"  
"I wanna be exactly like you. I think too much and you don't think at all!" Maya didn't allow herself to be hurt by her statement and smiled back at her.

"If you wanna be like me you gotta want something, be bold, and do anything you can to get it." While she was talking, she walked to the other side of her friend and put her arm around her. "You want to take the subway to school? Sneak out of the house early." Riley's eyes widened as she looked over her shoulder.

"Maya…"

"You want to wear makeup? Go ahead and wear it with confidence!"

"Wait, Maya-"

"And you want some nerdy pretty boy? You go after him!"

"Maya!" Riley was looking directly behind her, head tilted slightly, as if looking at someone much taller than them. "Turn around…"

"What?" Maya turned around and almost collided with someone's neck. She looked up and saw the very person they were talking about smirking down at her. Taking a few steps back, Maya glanced back and Riley gave her a look that said, ' _Talk to him!'_

"You think I'm pretty?" Maya said nothing. "Sorry to bother you. Hi, I'm Lucas." He stuck out his hand and Maya stared at it for a moment before slowly and warily shaking it. "I know it's been a while but you may remember that we went on a date once. It lead to a wonderful relationship that sadly ended when you broke it off. I know I can do better at this. My mama raised me right, teaching me to be a proper gentleman and not give up so easily. I would like a second chance, if you'll let me." He smiled in a very charming way. Maya was frozen in place. Again, she looked back at Riley. She, also frozen, had a huge smile on her face. Maya looked at her pointedly and discretely shook her head. Riley tried to talk to her with her eyes again, ' _Go for it or I'll kill you.'_

Maya turned back slowly. She opened her mouth to speak, but she was cut off with a voice on the intercom telling them they were at their stop.

"I, uh, we gotta go." She grabbed Riley's arm and quickly made her way off the subway.

* * *

They were in the middle of their history class when all of a sudden the back door opens and in walks Subway Pretty Boy. Riley looks from him to Maya.

"Subway boy!" She looked so excited, grabbing Maya's shoulder and shaking it. Maya's eyes widened before she focused her attention on the class for the first time in her life. She vaguely noticed him sit in the back.

Cory spoke up. "Okay, so for tonight's assignment, I'd like you to write me a three-page essay on anything, Anything at all that you guys believe in so strongly you'd fight for it." Maya couldn't help it, when she's nervous or feeling vulnerable she had to do something boisterous to prove her rebel status. She raised her hand.

"That! I'd fight for no homework. I come here every day. Why can't you teach me everything I need to know while I'm here? He gets our days. Let's take back our nights. No homework, more freedom." She stood up, making brief eye contact with... Lucas? Was that his name? He looked confused so she quickly looked away. "Who's with me? No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom!" As she chanted and marched toward the door, she caught sight of Lucas, who wore a small smirk. This made her march faster and within a second, she was out the door.

Both girls were sitting at their lunch table. Riley smirks down at her pot pie.

"Crazy how subway boy is in our class, huh?"

Maya paused, sloppy joe halfway to her mouth. She composed herself and put the sandwich back down.

"Uh, yeah. It gives me another chance to convince you to talk to him. Give you a pep talk and all that." Riley looked confused.

"Maya, it's pretty obvious that he's interested in you. He hasn't even looked at me once. Even I can tell he only has eyes for you." Maya half-rolled her eyes before she forced herself to stop.

"He does not. Guys don't look at me like that. You're the cute, adorable, sweet one. The boys come flocking to you. That's how all the fairytales go. The sweet ones get the prince charming and the scary ones get...imprisonment. Or death. Either way, you two were meant to be together. I mean, come on, look at him." She gestured to Lucas, who had just walked in and got in line. "He's obviously prince charming." She turned back to her friend. "And you're, like, Snow White or something." Riley smiled to herself.

"Well, thanks for that, Maya. But you're not the villain in this. Sure, most of the stories have the shy girl and the pretty boy get together, but this isn't a fairytale. This is the real world and you get to write a new plot. Write your own story." Maya said nothing, just took another bite of her sandwich. She only looked up when she saw someone walk past. Her playful demeanor came back.

"Aww, look at him looking for a place to fit in." They both watched as Lucas looked around for an empty seat. Riley got excited.

"Do you think he'll sit with us?" Maya scooted over, leaving a space between them, hoping he'd sit there and strike up a conversation with Riley. But, instead, Farkle sat down.

"Ladies!"

"No!" Riley yelled, uncharacteristically loud, and pulled on his sleeve until he stood up again. "Sorry, Farkle. You know we love you but this seat is taken." Farkle looked confused but shrugged and walked away. Maya laughed a little.

"See? You're starting to get it. We want Lucas here so you can talk to him." Riley ignored her.

"Quick, what are you gonna say to him?"

"You mean what _you're_ -"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"How 'bout, 'Hey Lucas, lookin' for somebody special?'"

"No, you'd never say that. We want you to be yourself." Again, Maya had to resist rolling her eyes.

"Well, when YOU talk to him, you could say, 'Hey Lucas, lookin' for somebody?'"

"Yeah, and then he'll talk about how he's been looking for you all his life."

"How 'bout, 'Hey, Lucas?'"

"Too casual." Maya gave her a dry look.

"'Hey?'"

"Hey." Lucas stood between them. Both of the girls' eyes widened. "Can I sit here?" He looked back and forth between the two of them. Riley nodded vigorously. As he pulled the chair out and got himself situated, Maya tried to hide her face behind her hair and busy herself with her food.

"So," he turned to Maya. _Crap._ "That was an interesting protest you held in history this morning." She pretended not to hear him but his stare bore into her. She looked up to see both of them looking at her expectantly, and sighed. Maya folded her hands in front of her.

"Well, I was only doing it to light a fire under this girl's butt." She gestured to Riley and he looked back at her for a moment but he turned to her again. "This lovely, charming, sweet as friggin' sugar girl is amazing in her own right but for some reason wants a little change in her life. She wants to be more adventurous but I think she's just perfect like she is." Maya expected him to grow interested in knowing more about Riley, but the big lug just smiled at Riley then focused his attention on her again. He even leaned forward a little.

"So do you do things like that all the time? Like disrupt class and make loud, boisterous rallies in the middle of school?" Maya blinked at him.

"Ah, I, uh, tend to make a fool of myself sometimes, yes. I'm kinda hopeless. A lost cause, really. But Riley, here, is just the best. Go ahead and tell him one of your famous stories, Riles." They turned to the quiet girl. She had her chin in her hands while she watched this play out. She smiled serenely.

"Oh, don't mind me. Please do go on. Hey, Lucas, did you know Maya has gotten out of detention, scott free, thirty-seven times just because she's that good with her words? She's a regular smooth talker, she is." Maya face-palmed.

"Really?" he asked Riley. Maya glared at her while she had his attention. When he turned back, she smiled awkwardly. Riley snickered.

"Thirty-seven? Okay, I need the story of how you got detention that many times and what you said to get out of them all." Before she could respond, Cory appeared next to them.

"How ya doin'?" Riley automatically intervened.

"Dad, you have a choice here. You can either understand that this is just a boy talking to Maya in the cafeteria…"

"I'm gonna do whatever you say next. Wait. He's talking to Maya?" He looked at the other two, then back to his daughter. "This is new. I don't know what to do here."

"You don't have to do anything. This is so innocent."

"Honey, fathers don't see anything as innocent. And Maya is like a second daughter to me. Fathers see it as… What's the opposite of innocent?" Maya's hand shot up with a smile on her face.

"Right here!" Lucas chuckled at that. Cory's eyes narrowed at him.

"No. Don't laugh at that. You don't get to laugh at that. You're a boy. And I know what boys laughing at girls-DAUGHTERS-means." Riley grabbed his face.

"Please don't embarrass her."

"I'm just going to talk to Mr. Friar." He turned to him and tried his best to look intimidating. "She may not be my biological daughter but I love her like she was. Now, you're gonna respect my daughters, got it?"

Lucas nodded. "Yes, sir."

"This one," he pointed to Maya, "is a tough cookie. So watch out, she'll twist ya, bend ya, try anything to break you and push you away. Be prepared for that." He put his arm around Riley. "This one's cute and clueless." He turned to her. "You watch out for people who may take advantage of that. Not saying he will, but others might." Maya looked slightly offended.

"That's your 'Dad Talk'? Tell her to watch out for the scary boys but tell the boy to watch out for me?"

"I'm pretty sure you can handle yourself. And I figured you'd be even more miffed if I told him some lie like you're dainty and sensitive or me I'm wrong." Maya looked down in her lap.

"You don't know everything," she mumbled. They all laughed.

* * *

Maya was happy that Riley had managed to not bring up Lucas again that day. She hoped they could blow past this. That is, until Lucas sat down in his seat in history class the next day. Riley turned around and looked him dead in the eyes.

"Hi, good to see you again. Right, Maya?" She directed her stare to her best friend. Maya looked exasperated for a second before glancing at Lucas.

"Hi, yeah, good." Lucas smiled at her, then turned back to his textbook, still smiling.

"Hi."

Before Maya could look up and tell Riley to turn back around and mind her business, Cory walked over. He stood directly between Lucas and Maya, catching his smile and her blush. He just folded his hands in front of himself and rocked back and forth on his heels.

"So...this is still happening, is it?" he asked, pointing at them.

"Nothing's happening!" Maya squeaked.

"There's nothing to worry about, sir," Lucas assured. Cory leaned down and got in his face.

"I hope so… You are a really good looking guy, you know that? This is gonna be harder than I thought." He walked to the front of the class. "Okay, so... Today we're gonna find out if anybody here believes in something so strongly they'd fight for it." He looked at the class and noticed Maya was still trying to hide. "Maya." She looked up and tried to feign confidence.

"Yes sir."

"Present your homework."

"Can't do that, sir."

"Why not?"

"I didn't do my homework, sir."

"Why not?"

"That's what I'm fighting against, sir."

Farkle sighed loudly. "Oh, this is gonna take forever!" He pulled out an eye mask and put it on. "And you can stop with the 'sir' nonsense. Just because Lucas does it, it doesn't mean you have to. You can figure out another way to impress him." He then proceeded to pretend to sleep. Maya's eyes widened and she decided to push forward, ignoring him.

"I have something to say." Cory looked surprised.

"Wow, I don't know what to do. I've never seen this before. The floor is yours, Ms. Hart." She didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she knew she needed to move on from this whole 'Lucas' thing. Even Farkle was catching on. Maya needed to get past this and what better way than her usual plan: make things much worse but in a different light. And if this scared Lucas off, well that was just a bonus.

Maya stood in front of the class. "All right, everybody who did their homework, put it on your desks."

"Careful there, Ms. Hart." Cory could sense she was about to do something reckless. Maya went around and collected everyone's papers. She then grabbed a lit sparkler off of Farkle's diorama.

"Okay. The burning of Atlanta led to the end of the civil war and to peace. I believe that peace is worth fighting for. The burning of the homework led to the end of the homework rebellion... because there was no more homework." Maya held the sparkler up against the stack of papers in her hand.

"All right, all right, that's far enough, Maya. I get it." Cory lunged forward and grabbed the papers before she could inflict any more damage. And at this point she knew there was no going back, lest she look like a fool in front of her classmates, so she held the sprinkler high and tried chanting again.

"No homework, more freedom!" Then the sprinklers all went off and everyone in the classroom was rained upon. Some of the students shrieked and they all filed out. Lucas stood up, not knowing what to do. He and Riley stayed in the room, walking up to her. Riley grabbed her arm and pulled her down. Lucas took his jacket off and held it over all three of them. He looked down at the small blonde.

"Is this one of those 'make a fool of myself' times?" Maya said nothing, just stared at the ground. Cory was trying to calm down Farkle when he spoke up.

"Ms. Hart, you have detention. The principal will determine if it goes further than that." The other two looked at Maya but she just kept her head down as she walked out into the hall. She walked over to the lockers and leaned against them, pathetically. The others followed her out. Lucas looked from her to Riley.

"Are you gonna say something to her?" he whispered. Riley looked at her, sadly, then up to him.

"You know what? Maybe you should." His eyes widened a little.

"Me? Do you think it's my place to butt in like that?" Riley smiled.

"Of course it is." She pushed him forward a little." Lucas slowly and kind of awkwardly walked over to Maya and leaned on the lockers next to her. When she didn't acknowledge him, he cleared his throat a little.

"So. I've been warned multiple times that you are this loud, rambunctious deviant of a girl and that I should watch out. But honestly? The more I see and hear, the more I want to know you. I don't think you're crazy rebel people, and yourself, make you out to be. I just think you have a lot of passion and ambition and want your voice to be heard. It's just that sometimes it goes a little out of your control. So don't beat yourself up about it. Just maybe try getting your voice out there in a more controlled manner." Maya clung to his every word, not that she showed it. She didn't even look at him. Lucas looked up at Riley, who smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

Cory walked out with Farkle, who had finally calmed down and got off of him.

"Riley, take Farkle for a walk. I wanna talk to Maya for a moment." Riley looked concerned but said nothing as they walked down the hall. Lucas kind of just meandered back into the classroom to get his stuff.

"Listen, for as long as I can remember, it's always been Riley and Maya. And I don't know if it's because you've got this wild side and Riley is wanting to be more like you so you're showing off more." He paused and glanced behind him, into the classroom. "Or if it's the fact that the new kid has taken interest in you. But you can't pull these stunts."

"I'm sorry," she said in an uncharacteristically small voice.

"I am too. You aren't the only one going through these things. Everyone your age has to do homework, and gets flustered around opposite gender. It's nothing new. You just take it too far. Do you understand me?" Maya held back the tears that threatened to fall and fixed him with stoney look.

"I have nobody at home who helps me with my homework. Boys never talk to me, and for good reason. And I'm the last person your daughter should ever want to be like." With that, she walked away before she started crying in the middle of the hallway. Cory stood there, not knowing what to do.

"Mr. Matthews?" Cory jumped a little. Turning around, he saw Lucas standing in the doorway.

"What is it, Mr. Friar."

"Believe me, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But I think I know a way to help. Maybe. A little."

* * *

The following day Maya was still a little tense about going back to history. Sure, she'd patched things up with Cory, but she was afraid he was secretly still mad at her. She was also a little embarrassed about yesterday and kept thinking the students were staring at her.

Cory walked in with a smile on his face. "Ms. Hart," he announced. Maya visibly flinched.

"Uh, yes."

"Up here, please." He pointed to the spot next to him. She looked around to see if anyone knew what was happening. When she got up there she whispered, "Are you trying to get back at me? I thought we were cool." Cory just smiled.

"So I went through all the essays everyone turned in yesterday and there's one in particular I think you should read. Now, I scribbled out the name because the person chose to remain anonymous. Here." He handed the paper to her. "Don't mind the burn marks," he joked. Maya took the paper, looking confused as ever. She looked at him questioningly. He nodded.

"Read it."

"Uh, okay," she cleared her throat. "'My mother always told me not to give up in life, but I've also recently met an interesting person that put a twist on that lesson. They made me believe that if you set your sights on something, you should be bold and do anything you can do to get it. That you have to be forceful, and not necessarily do it in a conventional way if you're motivated enough.'" Maya looked up from the paper, staring at her best friend. "Riley, I told you, don't save me. Let me be me." Riley looked surprised and shook her head.

"It's...not mine."

Maya looked confused, but continued, "You wanted me to write about one thing I think is worth fighting for. Well, I can't do that, sir. I believe many things are worth fighting for. Everything that makes you you: your morals, your interests, the people and aspirations in your life, they're all are worth it. But if I had to narrow it down, I'd say I think the underdogs of the world, the countercultures, are worth fighting for. The people who society takes half a glance at, and judge based on superficial reasons. The people who don't get second chances. The people who have succumbed to the label everyone else has placed upon them because they think they're no better, and never will be.

"'I believe they can and will be better than what people expect of them. They just need someone to fight for them and next to them. Show them they're not alone. Show them they're desirable. Show them they're worth it.'" Maya slowly lowered the paper and turned back to Cory, who was smiling even wider.

"That is all. Thank you, Maya. You can return to your seat now." Maya still looked baffled, but sat down anyway. As Cory started that day's lesson, she could feel eyes on her. Maya took out her notebook and quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper before ripping it out. She crumpled it up and dropped it to the floor, kicking it over while Cory wasn't looking. It hit Lucas' foot so he picked it up and straightened it out on his desk: **Thanks.**


End file.
